Mechanism for forming spirally wound multisided tubes



1932- s. T. MALTBY 1,872,152

MECHANISM FOR FORMING SPIRALLY WOUND MULTISIDED TUBES Filed May 1, 19304 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 2a i /22 i f I i 2 l 1 t I g. J k

awn kw Ja'dney 23M??? as v 1% W 1932- s. T. MALTBY 1,872,152

MECHANISM FOR FORMING SPIRALLY WOUND MULTISIDED TUBES Filed May 1, 19504 Sheets-Sheet 2 gmentq'c dam/M 6 55 r: WWMW Aug. 16, 1932 s. T. MALTBYI 1372:1512

MECHANISM FOR FORMING SPIRALLY WOUND MULTISIDED TUBES Filed May 1, 19304 Sheets-Sheet 5 gwuentoz Aug. 16, 19 32. ALT Y 1,872,152

MECHANISM FOR FORMING SPIRALLYWOUND MULTISIDED TUBES Filed May 1, 1930 4Sheets-Sheet 4 gwoemtoz Patented Aug. 16, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENToFFicB SIDNEY r. MALTBY, .OEWASHINGTON, nISTnIcr on COLUMBIA, ASSIGNORTo STONE STBAW CORPORATION, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, A

OF DELAWARE,

MECHANISM r03, FORMING SPIRALLY WOUND MULTISIDED Tunas Application filedMay 1, 1930. Serial No. 448,925

The bed of a tube making machine as onto the mandrel, to be woundthereon by its rotation, a frame carrying rollers adapted to bearagainst the respective facesof the mandrel passing therethrough, ofdriving means for rotating the frame and mandrel, and gearing actuatedby the driving means for rotating the feed rollers to form a tube andcontinually strip it from the end of the mandrel therebeyond, togetherwith means for adj usting the feed rollers to accommodate mandrels ofdifferent size; all'as will be described hereinafter in greaterdetail,--and as claimed.

It is an object of my invention to provide mechanism for rotating amulti-sided mandrel to spirally vwrap a tube thereon, such mechanismfurther serving to form a multisided tube and to strip it from themandrel.

A further object is to provide for adjusting such tube forming andstripping mechanism so that mandrels of various sizes can beaccommodated.

Other and further objects will be apparent from the followingdescription and drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side view of the tubeforming and stripping mechanism comprising this invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view taken through the axis of themechanism but showing the mandrel in full lines;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 1, inthe direction of the arrows;

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail sectional view taken along the line 4-4of Figure 6;

Figure 5 is a top view showing the arrangement of the mandrel and tubewinding and stripping mechanism together with one form of feed for thetube material;

Figure 6 is a sectional View taken along the line 66 of Figure 1;

Figure 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7-7 of Figure 1.

ings.

Referring more particularly to the-draw spaced upright supports 11 and12'bolted or otherwise affixed thereto in any suitable manner. K i

The upright the support of bearings 14' (shown in Figure 2 for thepurpose of illustration as ball bearings) which in turn receive andsupport the hub 15 of a plate 16and the hub 17 of a plate 34,respectively.

A drive shaft 19, beneath the bed of the machine'has gears 20 and '21keyed thereto, the gear'20 driving a gear 18 which is rotatable on thehub 17 throughan intermediate gear 22, j ournalled in the bed of themachine, while gear 21, through an intermediategear 23, also journalledin the bed of the machine, drives a gear 24 which is keyed to the hub15,

A gear 25'is keyed to gear 18'to rotate therewith upon hub'17, and is inmesh with pinions 26, 27, 28 and 29 on the shafts 30, 31, 32 and 33,which pass through the parallel plates 34, 35, so and 16'.

supports'have bosses 13 for coRPoaA'rroN' As is shown in Figures 3 and 4thelplate 35 has a projecting boss 37 which receives a ball bearing forthe support of shaft 30, such boss extending freely through an arcuateslot 38 in plate 34 (see'Figure 3). The plate36, also, is slotted as at39 for the free passage of the shaft'therethrough.

At its opposite end the shaft is j ournalled in the shouldered hub 40 ofan adjustable feed roller bearing which comprises an elongated base 41with spaced projecting beara ings 42 and 43, between which a feed roller44 is mounted to rotate with a stub shaft 45. Y

A bevel pinion 46 is secured to the shaft 30 and is meshed with asimilar pinion 47 affixed to the stub shaft 45, thereby to drive shaft30 as a pivot and thereby adjusted to accommodate mandrels of difierentsize, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

The shaft 32, driven by pinion 28, is mounted in thesame manner as shaft30 and carries a bevel pinion 54 in mesh with bevel pinion 55 on shaft56 which carries a roller 57 between spaced ears 58 and 59 projec ingfrom a base 60. The base 60 is pivoted on shaft 32 and at its oppositeend is bored to receive a headed bolt 61 which passes through anunderlying arcuate slot 62 in the plate 16, the arc of the slot beingstruck on a radius from the shaft 32. A nut 64 on the bolt serves tohold the roller 57 in adjusted position.

The intermediate plate 36 is arcuately slotted at 65 and 66 topermitfree passage of the shafts 30 and 32 therethrough and topermit'adjustment of the plates 16 and 35, with the shafts 30 and 32which they mount, about their common axis relative to plates 34 and 36.Shafts 31 and 33, shown 180 apart and each spaced 90 from the shafts .30and 32, are

journalled in plate 34 but pass freely through arcuate slots (not shown)in the plate 35. As shown inFigures 1 andv 6, shaft 31mounts a bevelpinion 67 in mesh with a bevel pinion 68 on a shaft (not shown) whichcarries a roller 69 between spaced ears 70 and 71 extending from a base72 which is pivoted on shaft 31. An extension of the base opposite thedriving gear is formed with a hole for receiving a headed bolt 73 whichalso passes through an ar'cuate slot 74 in the plate 36 and is fastenedby means of a nut 75. The radius of curvature of the slot 72 has itsorigin in the axis of shaft 31. 7

Similarly, shaft 33 carries a bevel pinion 76 meshing with a similarpinion 77 on a I shaft (not. shown) which extends between ears 78 and 79projecting from a base 80 and between which a roller 81 is mounted, faston the shaft, the base being pivoted on the shaft 33. A projectingportion of the base 80,.re1note from the drive gearing, receives aheadedbolt 82 which also passes through an arcuate slot 83 in the plate 36 andis fastened by a nut 84. Thus, therollers 69 and 81 can. be adjustedabout their respective drive shafts by adjustment of the bolts 73 and 82in the arcuateslots 74 and 83 ofplate 36 to be moved toward and awayfrom each other without, however, disturbing their parallelrelationship. r

' The rollers 44, 57, 69 and 81 are preferably, though not necessarilylongitudinally .grooved to present a roughened gripping surface forstripping a tube from the mandrel.

- -Bracing members 85 and 86 are fastened to the peripheries of theplates 34, 35, 36, and 16. Two of such members are shown but it is to beunderstood that any number desired may be provided. The members 85 and86 which are tapped into the plate 34 and screws 89, 9O tapped into theplate 36 (Figure 5). Member 85 is transversely slotted as at 91 and 92,and member 86 is correspondingly slotted for the reception of screws 93,94, 95 and 96, respectively.

When it is desired to adjust the mechanism for accommodating a mandrellarger than that shown in thedrawings the rollers 69 and 81 on plate 36are first swung about their respective drive shafts 31 and 33 afterloosening the nuts and 84. The rollers are adjusted to parallelism anydesired distance apart. Y r r The nuts 93, 94, 95, 96 are then loosenedand the plate 16 (with its attached plate 35) is moved in acounter-clockwise direction about its axis, as seen in Figure 7. Theshafts 30 and 32 are thus moved away from the vertical plane passingthrough the axis of the plate. Nuts 53 and 64 are now loosened and therollers brought to parallelism with their arcs at right angles to theaxes of rollers 69 and 81, in the form of structure shown in .toparallelism and squared with the rollers on plate 36.

' .It is to be understood that this invention is not confined to the useof two series of rollers as shown, but may include as many rollers asthe mandrel has faces, one or more.

rollers for each face, or any number of duplicate series of rollers foreach face, as desired.

Referring now to Figure 5 wherein is shown a preferred mounting of themecha nism above described, the mandrel 97, of rec tangular or polygonalcross-section, passes through an opening in the supporting bracket 98which rises from the machine bed. The end 99 of the mandrel is turned tocylindrical shape and mounts a radial bearing 100, car ried by thebracket.

The cylindrical end of the mandrel is threaded to receive a nut 101between which and the outer face of the bracket is clamped a thrustbearing 102.

This showing of the mandrel mounting is simply by way of illustration.Any suitable mounting which will permit rotation of the mandrel bv themechanism'hereinbefore describedmay be used.

The number of strips used in the windingof a tube is a matter ofselection, but for example I have shown three strips, two of which arefed onto the mandrel from one side and engaging over its upper surface,while the third strip is fed from the other side and engages under themandrel. A glue pot 103, diagrammatically shown in Figure 5, hasmechanism for applying adhesive to the under surface ofone of the twostrips which pass over it.

In operation of the mechanism, rotation of gears 23 and 24: causes arotation of the rollercarrying frame. Simultaneous rotation of gears 22and 18 in the same direction but at a lower speed causes the pinions 26,27, 28 and 29 to rotate about the gear 25. If it is desired to rotatethe pinions 26, 27, 28 and 29 faster and thereby increase the speed ofthe feeding rollers 44, 57, 69, 81 it is only necessary to lock the gear18 against rotation or to rotate it in a reverse direction. It is, therefore, to be understood that my invention contemplates the provision ofvariable speed mechanism for selective use under different conditions.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that this invention provides aforming and stripping mechanism for angular sided tubes which mechanism,constituting the drive for the mandrel in its rotation to wrap the tuberelieves the mandrel of torsional strains and constitutes a support forits free end.

What I claim as my invention is 1. A machine for wrapping tubescomprising anon-translatable mandrel, means for feeding tube materialonto said mandrel to be wrapped thereon and cylindrical means engagingsaid mandrel beyond the zone of wrapping for rotating said mandrel andstripping a formed tube therefrom.

2. A machine for wrapping tubes comprising a multi-faced,non-translatable mandrel, means for feeding tube material onto saidmandrel to be wrapped thereon, and cylindrical means adjustably pressingagainst the faces of said mandrel beyond the zone of wrapping forrotating said mandrel and stripping a formed tube therefrom.

3. A machine for wrapping tubes comprising in combination with amulti-faced, nontra-nslatable mandrel, a frame through which saidmandrel passes, means for rotating said frame and means for transmittingthe motion of the frame to the mandrel, said means comprising acylindrical roller angularly adjustable on the frame to engage a face ofthe said mandrel whereby the axis of the roller will be maintainedparallel with the surface of the mandrel which said roller contacts.

4. A machine for wrapping tubes comprising in combination with amulti-faced, nontranslatable mandrel, a frame through which said mandrelpasses, means for rotating said frame, a pair of cylindrical rollerswith axes angularly adjustable on said frame to engage said mandrel andbe maintained in parallelism with the faces thereof which said rollerscontact, and gearing for driving said rollers by rotation of the frame.

5. In a machine for wrapping tubes, a

rotatable mandrel, means for feeding strips rollers on the respectiveplates having their axes inclined to the others, a member connecting theplates of the series to permit rotary adjustment of some of themrelative to the others, thereby to vary the positions of the rollers onrespective plates, and gearing for rotating all of the plates as a unit.

6. In a machine for wrapping tubes, a rotatable mandrel, means forfeeding strips of tube material onto said mandrel, a rotary frameadapted to drive said mandrel, said frame comprising a plurality ofaxially.

aligned plates with central openings through which the mandrel freelyextends, pairs of spaced rollers carried on the faces of certain of saidplates and adapted to support said mandrel, the rollers on each platebeing angu- Jlarly adjustable relative to the others, shafts gearedtothe individual rollers, said shafts being journalled in the platescarrying rollers which they drive but passing freely through slotsin-the other plates, a driving gear, pinions on said shafts in mesh withsaid gear, a member fastened to said plates whereby they will be rotatedin unison, some of the plates being adj ustably retained by said memberthereby to vary the positions of the rollers on respective plates andthus provide for accommodation of different size mandrels, and gearingfor rotating the frame as a. unit.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature.

SIDNEY T. MALTBY.

